Websites (e.g., Internet websites) that experience fast-paced growth and/or have a spike in user traffic sometimes fail to handle the amount of page requests submitted by browsers. Typical scenarios include, for example: a website that receives a prominent media mention that spikes traffic; a website that quickly gains popularity that increases traffic faster than infrastructure is upgraded; and a website that is running a popular sale and is overwhelmed by the number of customers. In all of these scenarios, the host's opportunity to capitalize on the increased traffic is lost when users are unable to access the website.
When a user points their web browser to a URL (uniform resource locator), i.e., requests a web page, they are either served up the page or given one of several predefined error pages describing what happened with their request. In the case where the hosting server is too busy or unable to currently fulfill the request, the user's browser may display an error page, e.g., “503 Error”, “Service Temporarily Unavailable”, “Service Unavailable”, etc. The error page typically instructs the user to try again later, since the target web page is expected to be available later either when load decreases or when some other problem is fixed.
Upon receiving an error page, users typically try to reload the page several times either until the page comes up or they become tired of waiting, which causes additional load on the server hosting the target web page. This is not a very efficient solution for the user since they are spending time resubmitting their request. Moreover, if the user stops attempting to access the web page after receiving an error page, the website has lost site traffic and potential revenue, e.g., advertising, product sales, click revenue, etc.